Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Self Presentation in Online Dating

Dear Ellison, Heino, & Gibbs,

I find the topic of online dating really interesting and
have written research papers on this topic. While online dating can be a great
tool for people to find love and can also be an easy way for people with
limited time to search for a romantic interest. However, like you mentioned,
using the internet is an easy way to present oneself in a very positive and
attractive light, even if this may not be true. You discuss the ideal self
which is “One way in which participants reconciled their conflicting needs for
positive self-presentation and accuracy was to create profiles that described a
potential, future version of self” (Ellison et al., 2006). So, people may not
necessarily be trying to deceive the people that look at their profiles, but
rather want them to see their better sides, even if they may not fully be at
that level quite yet.

Baym also touches on deception in online dating sites. Baym
talks about how important and affecting names are on websites. She found that
people generally form initial impressions of a person based on their username.

Both articles discuss self presentation and representation
online as being a powerful tool to attract others. In real life, there are “there
are expressions given (communication in the traditional sense, e.g.,
spoken communication) and expressions given off (presumably
unintentional communication, such as nonverbal communication cues)” (Ellison et
al., 2006). Online, there is more room
to control the expressions given off. For example if you have a picture of you
cooking, you are giving off the impression that you are domestic and possibly a
good cook. On the contrary, if you post a picture of yourself in a party
setting, you may want to give the impression that you are not looking for
anything serious. I think this is a very important and powerful part of the
online dating world.